In daily clinical practice, especially with the intensive medical treatment of patients, so-called infusion pumps are used for the continuous or short-interval administration of active agents. Usually, these are syringe pumps or volumetric pumps (e.g. hose pumps, peristaltic squeeze pumps, roller pumps, etc.). These two pump types are of fundamentally different nature in terms of the maximum selectable conveying rate, i.e., the highest possible volumetric flow, the maximum administrable total volume without changing the disposable article, the conveying profile and the accuracy (e.g. metering accuracy). In simplified terms, the following selection criteria apply to these pumps:                Syringe pumps are used for:        
High demands concerning the precision of the volumetric flow (e.g. high metering precision over time and/or high uniformity of the conveyance),
high demands concerning the pressure profile (e.g. no pressure drops by “retraction phases”, for example),
smaller volumetric flows,
high long-term consistency in the volumetric flow (e.g. no effects of ageing and/or fatigue processes, e.g. due to the milling of a plastic hose and/or no influence by the “creeping” of an amorphous plastic hose) and low application volume for each of the disposable articles (e.g. syringe).                Volumetric pumps are used for:        
Lower demands concerning the precision of the volumetric flow (lower metering precision over time),
lower demands concerning the pressure profile (e.g. pressure variations due to “retraction phases”),
large volumetric flows,
lower long-term consistency and
enhanced application volume for each of the disposable articles (e.g. hose—e.g. employing a flow-based pumping principle allows to use any container (sizes) upstream the pump and to exchange them without changing the hose).
As a consequence, two different pump systems (according to different pumping methods) have been established in the marketplace with different (hitherto not combinable) performance profiles and hence different application situations.
Specifically, the syringe pump conceptually has a piston/cylinder assembly (forms and at the same time also limits the stored total volume) and moves the (syringe) piston in the (syringe) cylinder by motor power via e.g. a rotation-translation conversion gear, whereas the volumetric pump subdivides a hose segment by force effect (pump rotor with circumferentially spaced squeezing elements) in sequential, fluidically separate fluid chamber or partially closes them (also referred to as occlusion) and moves said occlusion e.g. periodically, for instance as a peristalsis, toward the pump output (i.e., toward the patient, for example).